Dr. Insel talks about a just-published paper that offers the first picture of a growth chart for cognitive development. As long-term studies add information on different facets of cognitive function, such a map has the potential to be just as vital a tool for evaluating growing children as charts for height, weight, and head circumference.

May is Mental Health Month and this year NIMH teams up with SAMHSA to celebrate and promote Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day on May 6th. Dr. Insel talks about how mental illnesses are the chronic diseases of the young.

NIMH is working to better define the boundaries of pediatric bipolar disorder, discover its causes and develop more effective treatments for such mood related syndromes affecting youth. Cross-cutting comparisons of mania-related and other forms of irritability and functional brain imaging studies will help to disentangle these syndromes so that clinicians can provide children with the best care. Our goal is nothing less than pre-emtive interventions and cures.

On October 5, 2009, researchers with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Massachusetts General Hospital published a new estimate of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) among children in the United States. Published online ahead of print in Pediatrics, the new estimate that roughly 1 in 90 U.S. children ages 3–17 were given an ASD diagnosis in 2007 is significantly higher than previous reports.